Short takes

The race is run; well done

A privilege of teaching is the opportunity to become a part of young lives as children hurtle through schoolrooms, hallways and fields as they rush to grow up. Rudy Dillard became a part of countless lives as a teacher, and as boys track and field and cross country coach at William Fleming High School. Before that, he taught and coached in Roanoke’s middle schools.

The longevity was important. Robert Vineyard, girls track and field coach at Fleming, explains: “Track is a sport where you have to get kids at a young age. If you’re still there when the kid gets to the high school level, then they know you and they know the program. You end up being a father figure to a kid.”

Or, Vineyard acknowledged in Dillard’s case, “Grandad.”

Dillard died unexpectedly of a heart attack this week. He was 66, still coaching at Fleming, still sowing memories and lessons about life. They were good ones. “He would do anything for anybody at any time,” his colleague mourned. “It’s a big loss.”

Not just dreaming; dreaming big

What’s $40 million when, in a few weeks, you might have a chance to win $400 million? Or $448 million — the height hit by this week’s Powerball jackpot?

It’s not as if a lousy $40 million would be enough to pay off the mortgage, put the kid through college and you and your honey on a luxury liner cruising round the world. . . .

Well, OK, it would be enough. But why settle for enough, when you might have it all?

If lottery players want to dream — which is the only sure thing a ticket, or a million tickets, will get them — they may as well dream big.

As the size of the Powerball jackpot has boomed, some players have grown jaded about lesser amounts, it seems. The director of the Multi-State Lottery Association calls it “jackpot fatigue.” A mere $10 million prize hardly seems worth the trouble.

Most weeks, fewer tickets are sold. But, no worries. At $2 a pop — double the price — the pot grows quickly to megabuck proportions, dreams bloom apace and gamblers pour out their hopes into random numbers.

How sweet the anticipation. And short-lived.

A watchful eye in Franklin County

Franklin County Sheriff Bill Overton is taking community policing to a new level. He’s launched a Citizens on Patrol program that trains volunteers, equips them with an older vehicle and radios, and then dispatches them to do the mundane tasks of law enforcement: escort funerals, assist motorists, unlock car doors and check the locks on schools, closed businesses and the homes of vacationing residents. This frees up sworn officers to tackle more serious matters.

Most of the volunteers’ tasks don’t require a sworn law enforcement officer to perform, but they do require people with the know-how and the command structure of a police agency. It’s encouraging to see that Franklin County’s program appears to have both. The volunteers are screened, then put through two levels of training before going on patrol as extra sets of eyes and ears for the sheriff’s department. And if some speeders slow down, mistakenly thinking the volunteers’ patrol car can pull them over, so much the better.

Overton said, “They are not to put themselves in any situation that is dangerous, and they’re not to put themselves in a confrontational position with a member of the public.”

Good rules.

Weather Journal

3 hours ago

1. 41-vehicle wreck ties up traffic Sunday on I-81 in Rockbridge County 

2. Virginia Tech football roster has holes on picture day

3. Medicare penalties hit hospitals in Roanoke, New River Valleys

4. Microfestivus beer event gets downtown Roanoke hopping 

5. McFarling: 2 little numbers are a big hurdle for Virginia Tech football 

6. DAN CASEY: Copter cost still stirring up dust

7. Arrest made in case of missing Nelson County teen

8. Roanoke farmers markets making local foods more accessible

9. Virginia attorney general's office grows under Ken Cuccinelli 

10. Man's drowning is 5th in Lynchburg area